A liquid crystal display device as this type of board device is equipped with an array substrate and a counter substrate each of which has an orientation film, and the array substrate and the counter substrate are disposed so that the orientation films thereof are in counterposition to each other. A liquid crystal layer is sandwiched in the cell gap between the orientation film of the array substrate and the orientation film of the counter substrate. A seal material and a sealing material are disposed on the peripheral areas of the array substrate and the counter substrate so as to bond the array substrate and the counter substrate to each other, and a spacer for holding the interval distance between the array substrate and the counter substrate is further disposed between the array substrate and the counter substrate. The spacer is formed of resin by a photolithographic method.
On the other hand, in order to enable this type of liquid crystal display device to perform color display, a colored layer composed of Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B) is laminated between the array substrate and the counter substrate of the liquid crystal device. Furthermore, when the array substrate and the counter substrate are bonded to each other, the seal material is coated so as to surround an image display area between the array substrate and the counter substrate and can perform image display. Furthermore, after the array substrate and the counter substrate are bonded to each other via the seal material, the array substrate and the counter substrate are heated up to a temperature at which the seal material is hardened while pressure is applied to the array substrate and the counter substrate to crush the seal material. As a result, the array substrate and the counter substrate are bonded to each other. At this time, an ultraviolet ray may be irradiated to the seal material to harden the seal material.
As a method for applying pressure to the array substrate and the counter substrate, a batch treatment method for stacking a plurality of panels each of which has the array substrate and the counter substrate bonded by the seal material and then a load is applied to the stacked panels to crush the seal material, or a sheet type treatment method for placing an individual panel under vacuum atmosphere to remove air from the inside of each panel and then exposing the panel to atmospheric air to apply a load to the array substrate and the counter substrate of the panel as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-049045 is known.
However, when the array substrate and the counter substrate are bonded to each other according to the above-described sheet type treatment method, it is required to release air from the image display area surrounded by the seal material coated between the array substrate and the counter substrate. In general, when as large a number of liquid crystal display devices as possible are cut out and formed from one large motherboard, efficiency is higher as the interval between the image display areas of these liquid crystal devices is smaller.
If the interval is excessively small, the air release efficiency from the image display area is reduced, and thus an air discharge time must be increased. Therefore, there is a risk that the production efficiency of the liquid crystal devices may be reduced. Furthermore, the cell gap between the array substrate and the counter substrate may be deviated and uniformity of the cell gap cannot be kept because air is not released from a part of the image display area, so that the productivity and display characteristics of the liquid crystal devices may be lowered.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and the object thereof is to provide a board device and a liquid crystal display device that can enhance the productivity and the display characteristics.